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Urgent music theater for children
Erich Kästner's famous work "Conference of the Animals" is listed as a gripping music theater piece for the whole family in the Rüsselsheim Theater.
Director Andrea Pinkowski gives the children's book classic a modern, haunting note and makes him a passionate call: against the inertia of the heart and for the joint use of our planet.
“This is the first and last attempt by the animals of all continents to save the earth. We are calling for an immediate action! " - With these uncompromising words, polar bear Paula opens the animals' conference. The location around the planet is dramatic. The animals are threatened by water shortages and wars, while people gather again and again to negotiate the fate of the world at unsuccessful conferences. They seem to have leased reason for themselves and refuse to even listen to the animals and their demands. With every encounter, the conflict between humans and animals is coming to a head, with every encounter tone and language change. What do we do with our planet? Who is this "we" and who owns the earth?
The most urgent appeals to the climate crisis are formulated today in the Fridays for future movement of young people. Also in Kästner's work published over 70 years ago, the children are the first allies of animals to become middle and mediators between the intuitive wildlife and the rational adult world.
Music as a "pass in communication between humans and animals"
Composer and musical director Sinem Altan takes up the area of tension between ratio and sensuality in the music of this staging: “The animals use the musical form to be understood by people. I pick up folk songs, folkloric elements and natural sounds, which were then "civilized" in gospel, jazz and blues. The animals use the relationship level of musical form to be understood by people. Under these civilizational forms of music, I tried to establish a sound of the earth. The whole piece over the way is an instrumental sounds that lead to the sung earth song at the end of the piece, a metaphor for connection with each other and with our planet. ” The event is suitable from the age of eight.
The story of the "Conference of Animals" asks to find ideas for peaceful coexistence and a universal language together. With this production, the famous parabola becomes a musical-animal call against the inertia of the heart.
(Photos: Barbara Eismann)
